


Chaos Inverted

by TheVelvetUndergrowth



Category: Hylics (Video Game)
Genre: Alongside a view of his ever-evolving relationship with Wayne, An exploration on how and why Gibby became the awful tyrant we know him as, Body Horror, Canon and Pre-Canon, Character Study, Do not copy this work to other websites, Dysfunctional Relationships, Gen, Reverse Chronology, Spoilers for the climax of Hylics 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 11:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30071637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVelvetUndergrowth/pseuds/TheVelvetUndergrowth
Summary: How could such an ancient being change so much yet still remain the same?This is the story of a lunar tyrant's life, told from ending to origin.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Chaos Inverted

**Author's Note:**

> Well this one has certainly been a long-time coming! I've had the idea for this story ever since I finished writing The Moon is Down back in September of last year, but at the time all the ideas within it were swimming too freely in my mind for me to catch them into a proper draft. 
> 
> Only now I have finally created a draft I'm confident in, and I'm super excited to present this one to you all! It's the first time I've ever attempted to tell a story in reverse chronological order. Think of this one less as a straightforward narrative and more as a series of vignettes that all tie into each other.
> 
> With all that said, enjoy!

The first thing the creature felt upon regaining consciousness was pain.

After a long and peaceful unconscious slumber its being had endured inside their surviving giblet, a sudden sensation of blazing heat swelled up inside it, sending scorching agony throughout its body as well as an intense feeling of claustrophobia as it rattled inside of its coffin. It was only when the coffin opened that the creature became aware that it possessed a body, and on shaking legs took a few steps forward onto the cold, hard floor of the ritual arena. Sight was regained after its head unfolded itself, though at first everything was blurry and colored a fleshly pink. Its senses then picked up a strong smell of rot and sweetness, like that of decaying meat drenched in acetone, swiftly followed by the sting of a forward attack gestured by some unidentifiable being before them.

Everything around it was just a mess of scratched-up lines and garbled noises. The newly awakened being could at first only respond by instinctively holding itself, which in turn gave it two realizations. First, there was something odd about the texture of their flesh. It felt far too thin and sinew-like, as if it were lacking in skin and muscles. Second, it was gripping something in its right hand, something shaped like several rods packed tightly into a pyramid-like shape. Ah, yes… it must be dynamite! As another attack struck the creature, it retaliated by hurling the item at the four colorful blobs before it. The bright light and booming sound that resulted from the explosion created a small chorus of familiar cries. Yes… yes… those awful hylics. They were the sorry little lot that followed the crescent-headed one! They had all joined forces to defeat this poor creature!

And the crescent head…

Wayne.

As the smoke cleared its vision and hearing finally returned to normal, revealing the sight of three skeletons and one crescent moon being on the ground before it. His flesh was melting, and his limbs trembled as he looked up at it with a face of unsurpassable anger. Before Wayne could make another action, the creature slowly steadied its arm and gave a single strong **SNAP!**

Things quickly became unstable once again after slaughtering those pathetic beings. A sudden rush of momentous power surged within its pulsating glands, alongside a carefully manifested memory of a great rooted tower which held dominion over the sky itself. The Hylemxylem! A burst of psychic energy shot out in a spasm, causing the many pipes around the island to hoist themselves off the ground and snake upwards in a sinister display. Even as everything turned white, it could feel its very being sculpting the earth around them!

The artificial psychic came back to its senses much later, now inside a stark-yet-familiar central hall and surrounded by a motley assortment of all kinds of different beings. Silmavogs, carassiuses, courtiers, tamed poolmen, some strange red giants, and many identical-looking plit-heads garbed in white robes. Some stood in gleeful awe as they looked at it, while others observed the entity with unease, closing their nostrils and shuffling in place. Had these hylics been present the whole time, and if so, what were they doing up here with such a powerful creature? They could easily get hurt. Their hushed murmuring was silenced by the echoing thud of a large door opening.

“It has returned!” A deep voice rang out from the entranceway. The rabble of inferiors cleared to the sides as a red-robed sorcerer made their way up to its presence, only stopping a few feet away.

“Hmmm, I assume the dynamite had to be used to clear out those anarchists, yes?” the toad-like being spoke calmly as they examined the creature, who in turn could only stand silently engulfed in its own feelings of confusion and unease. A nearby saouplit answered yes to their question, and they hummed in approval.

“Indeed I was correct. Even with such terrestrial-bending magic, the loss of all memories of combat could have proved fatal to all of my hard work. Hmph! If these were truly all the dents that crescent could make to my creation, then perhaps I should have cut off the head of a more formidable species for its crown, uhuhuhu.”

With that, the sorcerer turned to face their followers, their arms outstretched in pride as they spoke.

“I had waited since the wreckage of the moon to reconstitute the great potential that doth lie in the remnant Gibbylet, and I had yearned since centuries past to resurrect the power I am rightfully heir to! All who have loyally stood by my cause will reap the benefits of our new kingdom, and the terrible beacon of my power that stands before us all! With this psychic homunculus at my hand, all of the lowly beings below will bend to our whim, and build back my most prestigious empire!” 

Sounds of confusion rang from several of the hylics, namely the red giants, although many (particularly the saouplits) seemed to quietly radiate the same glow of satisfaction as their leader. The charismatic toad hushed them once more as they raised their voice.

“Step forward now, Ful…” the sorcerer paused, and then chuckled darkly, “Huhuhu, excuse me. Come to me, Gibby.”

Gibby’s body obediently stepped forward to the horned toad, who in turn reached their clawed hand out, commanding them to take hold. Just as it reached its arm out, however, the image of Wayne’s dying body re-entered its mind, rendering its body still. Why did they know that that being was named Wayne, and how did he and those three others destroy them? And that name, Gibby, connected strongly to Wayne somehow. It meant something important…

“Ahem!” the sorcerer spoke up, gesturing them closer with their outstretched claws, “I _command_ you to approach me, Gibby!”

Soon all the jumbled figures in their brain finally computed. That’s right, he was Gibby! King of the Moon! Wayne and those others had defeated him… and one of those beings also looked oddly familiar, the one with the red helmet. Of course, it was that power-hungry dread knight, Pongorma. He had seen Pongorma once before on the Hylemxylem, shortly after taking it over once the sages had chosen to abandon it. There was another being on the Hylemxylem that Gibby knew well, the very sorcerer who stood before him now. It was none other than Odozier, that little parasite who tried to use his deceptive magic on him to ensure a position at the top of the hierarchy!

As all the memories rushed back into his ever-thrumming head, the king was suddenly aware that something was _wrong_. His body should not be pulsating as much as it was, nor should such a fetid odor be emitting from him, and somehow his head felt even heavier than usual. He looked down at his arm and realized it was nothing but thin strands of tissue, as red as the gloves he now wore, and barely held together on bones that did not belong to him. Then, shaking, he lifted it up to touch a very cold, very familiar metallic face. Even without a real mouth, Gibby screamed.

**“What have you turned me into?!”** the tyrant’s distorted voice blared like a siren as he picked Odozier up by the neck and threw him across the hall. The horned toad’s cool demeanor had melted entirely as he heaved his vessel off of the floor, causing the other hylics to hurriedly run towards the surrounding walls for safety.

“What?!” Odozier croaked out, “That is impossible! I constituted your flesh and brain organically! Organisms created as such has been biologically proven to follow their-”

**“Their master.”**

“Of course. N-No! Not at all! I did not dare imply such a thing, m-mu-my dear Lord Gibbulus!”

Gibby held no tolerance for this facetious flattery. He tried to perform a leeching gesture at Odozier but instead unexpectedly actualized a volatile spume, which the sorcerer was able to protect himself from with his own Wrap gesture as a shield from the noxious fluid. Before he could retaliate with a combative gesture, the tyrant violently seized his former advisor’s wrists.

**“Odozier…”** Gibby spoke with weaponized gentleness as he looked down at the little toad he towered over, **“You have fooled yourself by bringing me back in such a grossly superior state. Do you know what I do to those who try to mold me for their own ends?”**

The psychic king emitted a crazed laugh as he sent a small shockwave of magic through Odozier’s body. As Gibby let go of the horned toad’s wrists, his hands quickly became drained of color while his fingers began to twist into soft, writhing tendrils. All Odozier could do was let out a single scream of agony as his entire being instantly transformed into a writhing mass of monochrome insanity. 

As the puny subordinates yelped and cowered at the babbling vessel of gray, twisting meat their leader had been reduced to, the tyrant could not help but notice a grouping of saouplits bunched up together in shivering misery, one of them having been reduced to a weeping mess from the horror of it all. Grinning inwardly, he unleashed another wave of power from his vessel toward the grouping, causing them all to cry out in vain as their bodies weaved and bloated until they too had become reconstituted, this time into more useful forms. The new foliated continuously danced back and forth to help support the weight of their massive hole-coated heads, which themselves were infested with sinewy, worm-like filaments. They all hissed in obedience to their new ruler. The others remained frozen in terror. 

With that, Gibby Redivivus spoke:

**“All of you hylics will obey my word! Wayne and his…** **_companions_ ** **will breach my Hylemxylem in short notice. Those of you with more than a molecule of brain cells will lock the gates and carefully set up the defenses I conjured, while the rest of you assist the foliated in guard duty. I had been far too lenient with punishing my subjects in the past, so any failure to accomplish your tasks will immediately meet your being with the fate of your former master. Now MOVE!”**

The tyrant’s iron-clad voice echoed ceaselessly across the winding halls of the ‘xylem as puny subordinates ran in all directions, eager to save themselves from the wrath of their reconstituted master. Gibby gave their feelings no more thought as he began moving his way through the main halls of the massive structure. After all those wasted years ruling over a tormented heap of nothing, there was no point in even attempting to be civil with the beings below him. It was only ever through fear that he could accomplish any of his goals, and if that were the case then fear was what he shall give!

A persistent wind produced a harsh eolian sound as it collided with his massive head once he had reached the highest hall of the Hylemxylem. So high that one could see the lines of the sky end and the black star-speckled backdrop of space begin. By now his chimera of a body was beginning to buckle under the pressure of maintaining itself, but Gibby’s mind remained determined in its goal to reach the tower, where the most potent of terrestrial juice was stored. Where his influence could reach the whole world! His limbs wobbled as the meat of his body heaved with every slow, sharp step he took, but soon enough he had closed the gate behind him and now found himself peering up at the massive cauldron above. He gestured for a nearby tube to bend down to his level, then allowed it to carry him up and let him slide into the terrestrial bathwater.

As his make-shift body dissolved, Gibby found that his senses could now perceive everything! He could feel the very roots of the Hylemxylem piercing into the Afterlife below, bringing up the precious fluid that lay wasted in that wretched underscene for a higher cause. He felt every individual particle of his powers blasting from the tower’s beam as his influence traveled all throughout the archipelago, and eventually the entirety of the planet. He heard every cry from every hylic below as they transformed into something more malleable, finally freed from their material pleasures and ready to be reconstituted into beings free of life and death, free to devote their love entirely to their new supreme creator and be loved in return. Why, he was starting to feel like a pneumatic already!

But of those many cries, the psychic tyrant could not help but focus on the hoarse voice of a very old being, one that held the faintest hint of familiarity. It was his final words of sanity that lingered more than anyone else's:

_“I wish with all my being that I had never cared for you.”_

Those words…

They meant nothing to him! That creature’s declarations were nothing but hollow echoes, sort of like that of a sculpted being. The dishonest ramblings of a serial abandoner! No, his mind could no longer consider the old one to be His Captain… but the younger one certainly could! Just like it was always supposed to be! The Afterlife would serve its only noble purpose by keeping his form intact, and then they shall meet in proper once again. He splashed a small amount of terrestrial juice out from the cauldron and infused it with the properties of a trampoline so that he may reach him most easily.

**“Everything that will be done, will be done for the right reasons,”** Lord Gibby spoke aloud to himself. His voice was soft, but still naturally harsh enough to send ripples across the pool he bathed in. With a disembodied hand, he swirled some terrestrial juice around and summoned it into the air, which he then casually molded until the pink was turned to yellow and the liquid was reconstituted into a familiar shape. He then pushed a finger down on the object’s “head” until it had become two small bumps, which he then molded into the shape of a crescent, and added two little black dots in between both horns.

**“You have saved me once again, Wayne. Whether you had wished to or not. Once again I am free from being controlled absolutely by beings who think I am a tool for their convenience, all thanks to your very presence. I will always forgive you for your many faults, so long as your being remains dedicated to my own.”**

And so he waited for His Captain to arrive, to prove his devotion by besting all the puzzles and guards within his ‘xylem. He would argue against the psychic overlord’s plans to reconstitute the planet, just as his stubborn brain always commanded him to do, and Lord Gibby would eventually have to use his newfound opulence against him. He could only hope that this time his grand visions would finally be proven right.

And so he waited.

And so he waited.

And

so

he

**waited.**

**Author's Note:**

> What was Odozier about to call Gibby Redivivus before he corrected himself? When and why did Gibby meet Pongorma on the Hylemxylem? What did Gibby mean when he said that Wayne had saved him "once again?" How can a saouplit weep if it has no known eyes?! 
> 
> The answer to (most) of these questions will all be revealed as we move backward throughout the tyrant's life!
> 
> This is the first time I've ever posted a story chapter by chapter as opposed to uploading the entire story all at once. Lately I've been in a bit of a creative slump, so I feel that completing the story in this method will help motivate me to keep going, although I can't say for sure how quickly I'll be able to complete each chapter...


End file.
